The One That Got Away
by Viluux
Summary: After a fight with her brother MJ ran away. Away from the terrors in the night and the life her father had chosen for them. And away from her family. Eight years later, Dean finds out she had been in contact with Sam, the trace he's been waiting for. He's determined to find her. She has to learn that she can't outrun the nightmares that keep haunting her family.


Dean was softly humming along _Smoke on the Water_ when the shrill sound of Sams ringtone almost caused him to yank the steering wheel around. Luckily, he was the only one driving down the highway in the middle of the night, or else the Impala just could´ve kissed a Prius, or good Lord, another Impala.

"Damn, Sam! Wake up! And turn down the damn volume, I almost got a heart attack."

To give his words more emphasis he boxed his brother on the arm. Sam made an annoyed sound and Dean saw him bend down to rummage through the empty water bottles and paper bags lying around his feet. Sam's head was still down between his knees and the glovebox when the blaring of the phone finally came to an end and Sam answered the caller with a sleepy "Yeah…?".

Dean heard a dull thud and saw Sam shoot up in his seat.

"Oh, hi MJ." Sam uttered hastily, drawing a sharp breath.

Dean jammed down his foot on the break. Hard.

His body was pushed forward and the seatbelt pressed uncomfortably into his neck and abdomen as the car came to a screeching halt. He heard Sam groaning.

"MJ?" Dean asked breathlessly as he turned to face Sam.

Sam looked at him with wide eyes, then settled his gaze on the road ahead.

"No, it's nothing. I'm sorry, what did you say?" Sam said into the speaker of his phone.

Dean stared at his brother, growing tenser with each second that passed. It was the first time he heard Sam say her name in years and his chest felt heavy at the thought that Sam was hearing her voice right now. That if only Sam would turn the phone on speaker he would be hearing her voice, too.

After a short while Sam spoke up again, "Sorry for that. I´m not at Stanford anymore."

"As in our sister MJ?" Dean asked, louder this time, still trying to process what was happening.

"It's kind of complicated." Dean wasn't sure if Sam was talking to him or the person that could be their sister.

Their missing and untraceable sister. The one they were told not to look for anymore. The one they were told to give up on.

"Are you seriously talking to Jeannie right now?!" Dean was shouting now, trying to get Sam´s attention.

"I would rather not talk about this on the phone." Sam´s nervous expression from before turned into a frown.

"Sam!" Dean hurled at him, sick of being ignored. "Are you deaf or something? Is this Jeannie or not?!"

"I'm hitting the road with Dean again." Sam struggled to block Deans smacks and punches with his free hand. "Don´t worry about me, I´m fine."

"So it is her!" Dean tried to grab the phone from Sam, but Sam was leaning away from him, blocking his hands with his arms and shoulder. "Give me the phone!"

"No, Dean!"

Dean unlocked his seatbelt, balanced his knee on the edge of his seat and leaned towards Sam. With one hand he grabbed Sam´s left shoulder and tried to push him down, putting all of his weight on him. The other hand reached for the phone that Sam was shielding with his right shoulder and arms. After Dean's face was hit by Sam´s elbow, he eventually managed to snatch the phone out of Sam's hand.

"Ha!" Dean held the phone up and away from Sam. He quickly sat down on his seat again and leaned his back against the car door. When he watched Sam make a move towards him, he pulled up his right leg and pushed him away with his foot.

Then he put the phone to his ear.

"Sammy? What´s wrong?" he heard her ask.

He stopped breathing. Her voice wasn't like he remembered it, but the sound was so familiar that he felt that tight feeling in his chest. His heart was racing and for a moment he forgot how to speak.

Over the years he had thought of so many things he wanted to tell her if he got the chance.

Now he couldn´t remember any of it.

"Sammy?"

Then the realisation hit him that this was his little sister speaking to him on the phone. And with the realisation, all the feelings he associated with her came flooding back.

All the anger and disappointment and guilt and worry that he had learned to push away so well.

He let out the breath he was holding and gave Sam, who was coming towards him again, a strong push against the chest with his foot.

"Where in hell have you been?!" he didn't mean to yell, but he couldn't help it.

Silence on the other end.

He almost thought she hung up, but then she spoke again, "Listen Dean- " But he wouldn't listen to her excuses.

"No, you listen!" he watched Sam give up his struggle and slump down his seat again, so Dean put down his foot next to the gear lever. "It's been eight years!"

"Yeah, but listen-"

"Eight fucking years, MJ!" Dean kept glaring at Sam, who was looking away now. Sam's posture was slouching and his mouth a thin line. Somehow Dean got even angrier.

"I know! Now lis- "

"Where are you right now?!" he pulled his leg back into the footwell, shifted in his seat until he sat up straight and secured his seatbelt. "We will come and get you! Don't even dare to move your stupid ass for an inch!"

"Don't go looking for me!"

"Bet on it, MJ." he engaged the first gear and got the car moving again. "Now, where are you?"

"Dean stop!" Sam said and Dean could feel his eyes on him. He decided to ignore him.

"I don't want you to find me!" his sister's voice was yelling into his ear, "I don't want to go with you!"

"I don't care what you want." As he was picking up speed and changing gear he had to place the phone between his ear and shoulder, making it uncomfortable to hold the steering wheel. "Now tell me where you are."

He heard an irritated groan on the other end. He pissed her off. _Good._

"Please, Dean," her voice was soft now and he might have heard it crack a little.

_She's crying_, he thought.

His stomach dropped and the heaviness he was feeling got more intense. He pushed the phone closer to his ear.

"Just leave me alone, don't try to find me." this time the crack in her voice was unmistakable.

He felt like crying, too.

"Where are you?" he whispered softly, afraid his voice would give up on him.

She didn't say anything for a few minutes and he thought that, maybe he had been speaking too softly for her to hear him through the phone.

"Don't tell Dad," she begged, "please, don't tell him."

"We will find you anyway," he was getting frustrated. "So just make it easier for everyone and straight up tell us where you are."

He heard a soft sob. He rubbed his nose with his sleeve.

"I don't want to be found. Leave. Me. Alone," she stressed out the last words loud and clear, as if he didn't speak her language.

"The hell I- " he heard the monotone beep that signals an ended phone call. She hung up on him.

Dean cried out and threw the phone across from him against the dashboard, where it bounced off and fell down Sam´s footwell with a thud.

Now with two hands on the steering wheel Dean pushed the gas pedal all the way down with his foot. The speed got close to 90 mph fast, and the steering wheel got harder to manage.

Sam was about to say something, when Dean punched him on the arm.

"What the hell, Dean!" he felt Sam's arm on his shoulder. "Slow down. You´re going to kill us."

Dean shook off Sam's hand and took his foot off the gas pedal.

"For real, Sam? For real?!" he was yelling again, this time louder than before. "Why did MJ call you? Why does she even know your number?"

"Just let me explain, okay?" Sam was staying calm and for some reason that irritated Dean even more.

"Shut up!" the car was at a reasonable speed, and it was an effort for him not to go full gas again. "You weren't even surprised when she called! What the hell is going on? Since when do you have contact again? Did you know where she was all that time?!"

Dean wasn't sure what irritated him more. The fact that his sister contacted their little brother, but not him. Or the fact that his brother kept this a secret and lied to him.

"Calm down, Dean!" Dean didn't want to calm down, he wanted to punch him. "She only contacted me a few years ago."

"Years?! Why didn't you tell us?"

"She asked me not to tell you!"

"You should have told us! We didn't hear from her in eight years. I thought she was dead, Sammy!", his voice cracked.

"I know," Sam put his hand on Dean's shoulder again and this time Dean felt the heaviness ease a little. "But I knew you would react like this. She didn't want you to go looking for her. She doesn't want to be found."

"So what? Good for her. Least she could do is send us some cards." he meant to sound annoyed, but his voice almost gave away again. "Why did she contact you, anyway?"

"I´m not sure. I think she found out that I went on my own too."

"That's all? What did she want? What are you two talking about?"

Dean decided he wouldn't leave Sam alone until he told him everything. He deserved to know. After all she was his sister, too.

"She usually doesn't really talk much, you know.", he paused for a moment as if to think about it. "Just asks me a bunch of questions about school and girls and my well-being."

That hit Dean harder than he had expected. _Did she ask about him, too?_ He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Usually? What the hell, Sam? How often do you talk?"

"Not so often. Every three or four months, I guess. Sometimes she sends me packages filled with candy and socks and stuff like that."

Another blow Dean didn't expect.

"Awesome, I get to feel guilty for years and you get god damned granny packages," he rubbed his nose with his sleeve again.

After a few minutes of silence between the brothers Dean asked, "What about me?" His mouth felt dry.

"What do you mean?"

It took him a moment to clear his throat, "Did she ask about me, too?"

_Or did she hate him?_

"Yeah," Sam sounded confused and Dean felt a lift in his stomach.

He closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath and let it out. "Where does she live? We will head there right now."

"Like I said, she doesn't talk much. And never about herself. I don't even know what she does for a living, or if she still has all limbs attached."

"I thought you got packages?"

"No return address. Always another postmark."

"She was always smart like that," Dean sighed. "But you got her phone number. Didn't you get curious?"

It was a long moment until Sam replied.

"I promised not to look for her. So, I didn't try to locate her phone."

Dean snorted.

"Well, I never promised her that."

Thanks to everyone who gave this story a chance and read until the end of the chapter!

This story will be about 4 chapters long, depending on how many chapters I need to wrap this up. So hopefully I won't need too long to finish writing it.

I hope I could entertain you a little and apologize for my English. I'm not a native speaker and would like to use my writing to improve a little. So it would be a great help if you would point out weird text structures to me. (But please be gentle and don't rip out my fragile heart in the process, I'm a soft lil bean)

Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you think!

If you like, come visit my tumblr, I'm viluux there, too.


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